South Carolina State University was founded in 1896 as a normal, industrial, agricultural and mechanical college by the state legislature. Today SCSU is a senior comprehensive teaching institution that is committed to providing affordable and accessible quality undergraduate and graduate degree programs. It embraces diversity among its students, faculty, staff and programs. The University is strongly committed to improving its health-related capabilities through the support of the scholarship and research efforts of its faculty and students. The goal of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Extramural Associates Program (EA) is to increase the biomedical and behavioral research productivity of faculty and students at SCSU. The accomplishment of this goal will be assisted by the creation of an Office of Biomedical Research Development (OBRD) in the School of Engineering Technology and Science (SETS). We expect these efforts to increase the number of funded research projects by faculty and the number of research publications by both faculty and students. It is also expected that there will be an increase in the amount of extramural and intramural research experiences of students, thereby increasing the number of students who are accepted into and complete Ph.D. research programs. It will be the responsibility of the Director of the OBRD to coordinate a number of program activities that include: faculty pilot research projects, student research internships, research seminars, research workshops, and the development and expansion of local and regional research collaborations.